Double Agent

This is part of a series entitled, “When Double Is Trouble.”

Espionage, suspense, and intrigue have always done well on television. Growing up, I remember watching actor Don Adams play Maxwell Smart in the comedy series, “Get Smart.” During my high school and college years, the Bourne franchise splashed onto the scene, becoming arguably the best spy movies in history. But as entertaining as these movies and shows are, true stories of spy craft are even better.

One fascinating spy story comes from World War II. Eddie Chapman, a professional crook who had been dishonorably discharged from the British army, was serving a multi-year imprisonment for his robberies when the Germans invaded the Channel Islands where he was incarcerated. Hatching a crazy plan with a friend, Chapman offered his services to the Germans to be a spy and saboteur on English soil. The Germans went for it!

Chapman was trained as a spy for over a year, then sent to England to destroy a factory that built English bomber planes. As soon as he landed, though, he surrendered to the British. After a lengthy interrogation, the British employed him as a double agent. They disguised the factory so that German reconnaissance planes concluded it had been destroyed. Then, Chapman was sent back to Germany to infiltrate Germany’s spy network. Amazingly, Chapman was so highly regarded by the Germans, that he was the only Englishman to receive the Iron Cross! To the English, his code name was “Agent Zigzag.”

It's incredibly hard – and dangerous – to be a double agent. Eddie Chapman had to demonstrate allegiance to two opposing countries, England and Germany. And there were many close calls along the way. Since he went back to a life of crime after the war, it seems that Chapman’s true allegiance was to himself.

Thankfully, God doesn’t need any of us to “spy” on the enemy. He knows everything, and we have been warned about the world, the flesh, and the devil. Still, some of us live like double agents. Through our thoughts, words, and actions, we demonstrate allegiance to the kingdom of this world, while professing to be subjects of the Kingdom of Jesus.

James warns would-be “double agents.” James 4:4 reads, “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” This has been an emphasis since the beginning of the letter. A “double-minded man is unstable in all his ways” (1:8). The duplicitous tongue should not be characteristic of Christians (3:10).

Often, James sounds like his brother and Lord (1:1, 2:1), Jesus Christ. In Matthew 6:24, Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” No Christian should be “Agent Zigzag.” It’s dangerous to be a double agent, because you cannot remain loyal to opposing sides. Those who waffle between friendship with the world and devotion to the Lord are choosing the world.

What about you? What does your life demonstrate? Do you casually salute Jesus’ kingdom and then pursue worldly pleasures, dreams and goals? Do carnal desires control your life? Do you call yourself a Christian, but then inch closer and closer to the world? (See Genesis 13:12; 14:12)

Or are you sold-out for Jesus? Have you set your affections on things above? Are you like the Apostle Paul, pursuing Christ as if it were your one and only goal?

Jesus doesn’t need – or want – double agents. He wants men and women, boys and girls, who love Him with a whole heart, and a single purpose. Let’s say with the Psalmist, “With all my heart I have sought you” (Psalm 119:10).